Juan II. and Doña Isabel of Portugal--Execution of the Conde de Luna
Burgos and Valladolid never were capitals in the modern acceptation of the word, but they were at this time the centre of court life.
The short lives of the illegitimate branch of the House of Castile, and their personal insignificance, intensified rather than detracted from the dramatic vicissitudes of their reigns.
Juan, son of Enrique de Trastamare (1390), died young by a fall from his horse. His son, El Enfermo, who ended his life at twenty-eight, inaugurated the romantic episode of _the Regents_. The infancy of Juan II. called forth the powerful personality of the Conde de Luna, and the vice and folly of Enrique IV. brought forward his sister Isabel, wife of Ferdinand the Catholic, into extraordinary prominence in the politics of Europe.
At this time Queen Catalina holds her court at Burgos--a fat, foolish dowager, by no means inheriting the fierce passions of her grandparents--Don Pedro el Cruel and Maria de Padilla. In close alliance with the highly cultivated Moors, as had been her husband El Enfermo, Catalina also favours the fine arts, and educates her son to love those elegant _cancioneros_ sung by her husband with such art, the metre of which will never be surpassed.
Hundreds of these romances, current in that day, were softened and refined into real poetry, and as such have come down to us as absolute gems. Long stories in prose too, such as Amadis de Gaul, began now to be written, to be followed by the _Romaunt of the Rose_, as also many learned treatises on government and science, taken from the Arabic; and, wonder of wonders, Don Pedro Ayala actually translated Livy into Spanish!
In this literary movement the good Queen Catalina took part, and inducted her little son into an amount of learning remarkable in that age. He was fond of books and could speak and versify fluently in Latin. Courage he had, and knowledge he acquired, growing up under his mother’s care a gentle, indolent young prince like his father, but absolutely without will, which made him a prey to the first resolute spirit who gained his confidence.
Such a one was found in the person of Don Alvarez de Luna, Conde de Gormaz, the last representative of the ideal Knight of Spain. Bold, romantic, brave, his masterful individuality imposed itself on the artistic temperament of the young king much as an eagle might foster and protect a helpless dove.